Television Reviews : An Incisive, Detailed Look at Crime in ‘Mafia Wars’

Compared with “Mafia Wars,” other documentaries about organized crime sleep with the fishes.

Airing at 8 tonight on KHJ-TV Channel 9, this two-hour program from a crack British documentary team uses incisive reporting and bold production techniques to unfold a true-life epic of murder and corruption that pins you to the screen even as it repulses you.

Here is the real “Miami Vice.” New York, Sicily, Palermo and Brazil vice, too.

Writer/director Christopher Olgiati traces organized crime activity chiefly through the career of former Mafia boss Tommaso Buscetta, who has vowed to destroy the same Cosa Nostra to which he swore loyalty 40 years ago. His testimony in a celebrated New York drug case led to the conviction of 20 Mafia leaders, and he now lives somewhere in the United States with a new identity.

Through Buscetta and others, the program provides details of how authorities recently smashed “The Pizza Connection,” reportedly the world’s largest heroin network. Erasing caricatures, it gives historical context to the evolution of the Mafia in Italy (“Italian justice took years, Mafia justice took seconds”). It explains the movement’s power shift to the United States (“The tradition was in Sicily, the money was in America”). And, using interviews with former crime figures in silhouette and surveillance film and tapped phone conversations provided by federal authorities, it chronicles more recent Mafia killings and drug trafficking.

This is at once a serious, meticulously researched work and a showcase of dazzling documentary form that combines reality with racy music, striking graphics and simulated violence, all of which enhance the story telling.

Olgiati and executive producer George Carey are with the BBC and also collaborated on the award-winning documentary “Marilyn Monroe: Say Goodbye to the President.” Producer Tim Shawcross has written a book about Buscetta. These three, along with U.S. producer Ann Watson, present a program that stretches the boundaries of documentaries while also maintaining their highest traditions. It’s a deal you can’t refuse.